Rabbi Gottschalk Guided Reform Seminary

R

abbi Alfred Gottschalk, former
president and chancellor emeri-
tus of Hebrew Union College-
Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR),
died Sept. 12, 2009 in Cincinnati.
A child refugee from Nazi Germany, he
rose to head HUC-JIR, the seminary for
Reform Judaism. For five decades, he con-
ceived and guided the development and
expansion of its campuses in Cincinnati,
Jerusalem, Los Angeles and New York into
large centers for higher Jewish learning
and the training of rabbis, cantors, educa-
tors, communal professionals and scholars.
"As a child of the generation of the
Holocaust and as one who witnessed
the onset of the destruction of European
Jewry, I knew that I would devote myself
to rebuilding Jewish life," he once said.
"This has been the key motivation of
my life, and my work to advance HUC-
JIR as a successor to the great centers of
learning destroyed during the Shoah has

enabled me to contribute
to the regeneration of the
Jewish people."
Born in Oberwesel,
Germany, in 1930, Rabbi
Gottschalk grew up in a
modern, traditionally obser-
vant home, attending servic-
es with his father, Max, who
was the Torah reader, and
grandfather Gustav Gerson,
Rabbi Alfre d
while his mother, Erna, and
Gottschalk
grandmother sat in the
upstairs women's section. He was named
after an uncle who had fought and died
as a German soldier in World War I.
Their family's several hundred-year-
long settlement in this small Rhineland
area came to an abrupt end with the Nazi
onslaught. His father escaped arrest by
the Gestapo in 1938 and made his way
to safety in New York. Gottschalk and his
mother immigrated to America in 1939

after obtaining a special
"above the quota" visa to
rescue children out of Nazi
Europe.
He earned a bachelor's
degree from Brooklyn
College, simultaneously
attending the Jewish Institute
of Religion's pre-rabbinic
courses, entered the institute
in New York in 1952, and
transferred to the Cincinnati
campus in 1954. Following
his ordination and graduation with hon-
ors in 1957, Rabbi Gottschalk joined the
faculty and administration of HUC-JIR,
becoming the dean of the California
School in 1959. He earned his Ph.D.
degree in 1965 from the University of
Southern California iln Los Angeles.
As dean of the L.A. campus (1959-
1971), he pioneered the establishment
of innovative programs: the School of

Jewish Communal Service (the first of its
kind in America), the Rhea Hirsch School
of Education, the Skirball Museum (the
second largest Jewish museum collection
in America) and the Magnin School of
Graduate Studies.
In 1971, succeeded Dr. Nelson Glueck as
President of the college-institute and for
the next 25 years led HUC-JIR's growth of
campuses, programs and enrollment. In
1996, Gottschalk was named to the newly
created position of chancellor, a position
he held through 2000.
Gottschalk's tenure as president (1971-
1996) and chancellor (1996-2000) effected
historic milestones. He ordained the first
woman rabbi in America (1972), the first
woman cantor in America (1975), the first
Reform rabbi in Israel (1980) and the first
woman rabbi in Israel (1992).
Rabbi Gottschalk is survived by his
wife, Deanna Zeff Gottschalk, children
and grandchildren. L

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Obituaries

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September 17 * 2009

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